Emotions, loss and change: Armenian women and post-socialist transformations in Nagorny Karabakh

Abstract

Based on empirical data obtained from ethnographic fieldwork in Nagorny Karabakh (NK), the article analyses gender as one fundamental but neglected dimension of post-conflict society. In particular, this article examines changing gender relations as a result of the political transformations occurring during and after the Karabakh conflict (1990-2000). The focus is on two groups of women residing in Martuni, a small town in NK. The first group includes local Armenian women, the second Armenian women from Azerbaijan, forced to resettle in Martuni. In this way, the article not only explores how the status of these women and their dependency has changed as a result of the political transformations, but also how gender roles and identities are negotiated when the region of resettlement is not completely unfamiliar to new arrivals. The article concludes by highlighting these Armenian women’s contradictory, yet similar experiences in terms of prevalent gender constructions. In doing so, the article expands research on gender and political transformations in post-socialist regions and beyond.